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Dick Ruhe  

Leadership, Change, Quality and Team Building Specialist and Senior Consulting Partner for The Ken Blanchard Companies

In addition to being a Senior Consulting Partner forThe Ken Blanchard Companies®, Dr. Dick Ruhe has more than 25 years of experience as a business keynote speaker, researcher, and author. He is a dynamic motivational speaker as well as a master storyteller. Throughout his spirited presentations on leadership, teamwork, innovation, and sales, Dick insightfully connects with attendees’ core issues and inspires a deep desire for success. He believes that motivated people are the ultimate competitive advantage in the business world.

Dick has a unique ability to present fresh business content in an entertaining and humorous way that creates an enthusiastic learning atmosphere. He has a solid background in teaching and management experience in a broad expanse of industries in the private and public sectors. Dick is a recognized expert on human performance, offering solutions that are based on current data and that include practical tools for attendees to use in honing their skills and reaching their full potential.

Dick previously served in the U.S. Coast Guard as the program director for leadership and management development. He also was vice president of sales and marketing at the Center for Leadership Studies. Dick has been a regular columnist for Sales and Marketing Management magazine and has been published in Training and Development, Western Business Systems Journal, Proceedings of the Academy of Management, and Executive Excellence. He is a past chapter president of Sales and Marketing Executives International.

Dick has a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, an MBA from the University of New Haven, and a doctorate in human resource development from the GeorgeWashington University. With Ken Blanchard, he coauthored Know Can Do!, a best-selling business leadership book.

Dick enjoys running and swimming in his spare time.

Speech Topics


Making Change To Rejuvenate The Organization:

People must learn to get around the fears, obstacles and barriers to make change happen. Dick shares seldom-used actions that get things moving faster, while keeping internal trust in place. Examine the unique impact of reorganizing and restructuring, and use a four-step model to deal with the dynamics of change. Condense the time to move from your current culture to a stronger more change-adaptive one, while keeping people loyal and energetic.

Leadership For A Reenergized Workforce:

Learn why good performers sometimes take so long to provide effective leadership. Leaders know how to preserve the organization's values while changing the way it operates. It is important to retrain and redeploy the workforce in order to merge organizational objectives with the goals of individuals. Leadership and management both have their places in capitalizing on the talents of people at all levels. It is important to be both visionary and practical, and be very capable of moving from discussions of purpose to the details of actual practice. Learn the two skills that create learned optimism and maximize the performance of others.

Everyone's A Coach - You Can Inspire Anyone To Be A Winner:

Dick Ruhe relates the exciting concepts from the best selling book Everyone's A Coach, co-authored by Ken Blanchard and Don Shula, former head coach of the Miami Dolphins and the most successful coach in professional football history. This presentation is a must for anyone charged with the task of helping others perform better. Today the pressure is on for people to perform at their best. Therefore, there has never been a greater need for effective coaching. Everyone is a coach in some aspect of their life. There are people out there who need your help. No matter how good you are at coaching others, you can improve your ability.

Quality Leadership In A Tough World:

Find out why quality remains the key way to win in the global economy. And why it's important to demystify quality and create a common language in the organization. People have to turn the classic quality tools into behavior. Learn the new skills of influence in an organization committed to quality and also how to get more out of your quality processes. To implement successful quality improvements initiatives, people must use specific action steps to drive breakthroughs in organizational performance. Dick will share four specific behaviors to create an integrated quality effort, along with tips to help people develop personal action plans.

Creating Raving Fans - Satisfied Customers Just Aren't Good Enough:

Successful organizations have one common central focus: customers. It doesn't matter if it's a business, a professional practice, a hospital or a government agency, success comes to those, and only those, who are obsessed with looking after customers. Based on the best-selling book Raving Fans, by Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles, Dick's program focuses on three critical steps for developing "raving fans" and loyal customers. You must DISCOVER what you want to do with your customers. Since you can't be all things to all people, it is best to focus on the things that your company does well. Next, you must DISCOVER what it is your customers really want within that framework. Learn to listen to their needs and innovate to get those needs met. The third step is to DELIVER PLUS ONE PERCENT. The key here is to consistently deliver just a little more than your customers expect from you.

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